Indie Author Support

Indie Author Support through Rogue Books

You've read the blog posts for a while (or you're just starting). They've helped you figure out pricing, marketing, selling. Now, take what you've learned and augment it through Rogue Books, my publishing company which is dedicated to lifting up and supporting indie authors. Learn, promote and ultimately sell. Find out more at www.rogue-books.com.

Praise for Enemy in Blue

"The plot is as gripping as it is chilling. The story flows smoothly, and each chapter ends with the perfect amount of suspense to keep you wanting more. A fantastic and exciting read, as I could not put the book down." -B.Burton

"A great first thriller for this young author. I would compare this story to John Grisham's book of "The Innocent Man." It is that captivating and more." -M. Bautista

"If you are trying to decide whether to get this book or another Vince Flynn/Turow/Grisham/Clancy book, GET THIS ONE!" -S.Steinbeck

"Enemy in Blue grabbed me from page one and didn't let go until the last page was turned. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a debut novel.... because it read like many of the seasoned legal thriller authors that I love to read and get lost in." -K.Velte

It’s been two years since I’ve published a brand new book. (I kind of had the first line from “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies in my head when I started this post. Don’t remember it? Take a second: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7vp28mGD7g). For 1.5 years of that time, I spent most of it as I think authors hit by “writer’s block” do. Making excuses but no progress. (Okay, at this point I had to shut the song off, ’cause there was no way to write this with all that yapping going on). Finally, like a cruise ship at sea, I started to turn my perspective around. I started to write again. Here are two things I learned from that downtime, and that will hopefully help you get through your own when it comes (because it will come):

MAKE PROGRESS AT ALL COSTS

No, General Eisehhower, do not take this tooseriously. Don’t alienate a loving spouse. Don’t ignore your kid’s functions. Don’t lock yourself in a room for three months with nothing than a generator and a computer (you need Vitamin D, for Pete’s sake–another aside, who the hell was Pete and why are we thinking about his sake?) What I mean is do not let excuses get in the way of your writing. And, what I mean by making progress at all costs is the following. Keep pushing your next manuscript forward. Even if you can only muster 100 words a day, keep moving forward. Stasis is our enemy, as authors. Set up a Google Drive account and put the text of your next book into a file on your Drive. Why? This eliminates the excuse that your book is on a home computer, and you’re on a train commuting to work. You can open your Google Drive anywhere you can get connected, on any device. That means you can basically write anytime you want, from anywhere. It gives a new meaning to the phrase, “Toilet Book,” doesn’t it? (I feel like putting this into citation format: See Seinfeld, “Toilet Book” episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NygOFsExGMU).

All right, you’ve agreed to set aside excuses and to push forward at all costs, yeah? Good. Now, what was the second part of my epiphany?

TO BE AN AUTHOR, YOU WILL WORK YOUR ASS OFF

I need you to notice something that is going to make you a bit sad. I didn’t title this next section, “To be a Successful Author…” You know why? Because, even if you work your ass off it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to be successful. But, I can guarantee you that you won’t be an author, or successful, if you don’t do it. What do I mean by “working one’s ass off?” I say the following with a bit of pride, particularly for all of us authors who are still balancing the woes of a “regular” job and writing. (To those authors that aren’t slaves to the grind of someone else’s dream, and who get to write 100% of their time, I salute you with a kiss blown from a hand that’s holding up a middle finger–hopefully those authors get the love and joking sarcasm that comes from this gesture). It means waking up before the rest of the world is awake and writing down an idea that couldn’t stand being pent up in your head. It means holding your smartphone over the side of the bed so that the light of the screen doesn’t wake your snoring spouse while you make edits to your book. It means that instead of watching the next episode of CBS’s hit de jour, you’re reading books in your genre to perfect your craft. It means that you will work your ass off, without knowing whether your book will sell, whether a publisher will pick it up, or even if people will like it. Talk about a leap of faith, huh?

YOU CAN DO IT

(I don’t think I need to reference that one for you, right?)

It’s true, you can do it. You just need to start. You need to run the first block, and everyday thereafter take it one block, or even one step further. I know hundreds of authors that are doing this on a daily basis—and they would all tell you they’re successful, in one way or another.

You got to sit at the big boys’/girls’ table–and then they realized you were sitting there. Huh? December 2012, Amazon announced KDP Select. Tons of us jumped in, many of us made some really good money from it.

That’s when things started to change.

Publishers started to complain. Traditionally published authors joined in the cacophony. Why? Indie authors were shooting up the charts and that was taking money out of the pockets of people/companies with big money in the game. That’s when downloads, which initially counted on a 1:1 ratio for your sales coming out of free, started to slip. The ratio fell to the point where it is now. Where is it now? If you don’t get into the top 100 in free, might as well not do it.

If you sense a bit of an edge from me on the issue, you’re insightful. No one expected the gravy train to last forever, but it was remarkable to see how quickly Amazon adjusted against indie authors to mollify the traditionally published world. Now, Amazon takes away likes and tags from books. Ask yourself this question. Who did the best job getting likes and tags?

IT SURE WASN’T TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED AUTHORS

So, free is largely dead. Now, Amazon takes likes and tags away which hurts indie authors in a plethora of ways. Is it a death knell to indie authors? Certainly not, but it’s another data point in a trend.

And that trend is that not much has changed.

An important concept in the law, where I spend most of my time and make most of my money, is “standing.” I ask myself, has the standing of indie authors changed in the last two years? My honest answer is not really. Will it change? If it hasn’t changed yet, what will be the catalyst for that happening?

Do you really think they’ll leave the door unlocked and let indies sit at the dinner table again? How full is your glass? :)

I started the AmazonLikes hashtag in August of 2011 out of a pretty simple observation. There are hundreds of thousands of authors that have published their books on Amazon. There are thousands of authors that I have followed or have followed me on Twitter. Yet, I consistently see people struggling to get any “likes” on their book(s).

You may first ask, why does it even matter?

Good question. It matters because there are hundreds of thousands of ebooks on Amazon. Millions of paperbacks. How do you sort through big lists when you have to? Easily identifiable markers. So, on Amazon, what are those markers? For a book, it’s the cover image first, then the review ranking, then the number of “likes.” To answer your question then, if the number of likes is the third most important thing people use in considering whether to consider your book further, should you ignore that? To analogize that to something, such as sports, do you think a good pitcher in baseball will focus on their first two types of pitches, but ignore their third and fourth? Nope. Not a good one, at least.

So, if you’ve bought into the importance of the number of “likes” on your book’s page, then read on. If you’re still a skeptic, best of luck to you.

With that framework in mind, I set about to figure out a way to increase likes on books. There were already groups in Goodreads and elsewhere that focused on the venture. I participated in those groups, but I found a couple things out. First, people don’t reciprocate as well as they should. Second, the groups were rather small in nature (i.e. 20-40 authors) so the number of likes that could be obtained was limited. Sitting at a small desk at a hotel room, and talking to an awesome author named D.A. Graystone (check out his book Two Graves), I came up with the idea for #AmazonLikes.

For people unfamiliar with it, here’s how it works. You create a tweet that includes your book’s title, the link to it on Amazon, and the hashtag #AmazonLikes. That’s it. You tweet it. Because you have included the hashtag #AmazonLikes, the post immediately goes into the hashtag stream. This means that if you perform a search for “#AmazonLikes” on Twitter, your tweet as well as hundreds of others from authors doing the same thing pop up.

Getting it now? :)

What #AmazonLikes has created then, is a stream of authors tweeting their book’s link to each other. People that participate can simply click on those links, like the books, and go to the next one. If we do something SIMPLE, like going into the stream and liking 1-3 books a day, the results can be tremendous.

That’s where you come in!

Tweet your book’s link to #AmazonLikes. You don’t have to ask someone twice to do something beneficial to them. So, what I’ll ask twice is for you to get into that stream and help other indie authors out. Without each other, we aren’t much. Together, as we’ve seen, we’re a force to be reckoned with!

Amazon recently added a FAQ regarding reviews, guidelines for posting them, and when they will be removed. You can find the FAQ at this link http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=amb_link_47889982_2?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201077870&pop-up=1, or you can just read it here:

FAQ

The guidelines say “promotional content” is not allowed. What would Amazon consider to be promotional content?

Customer Reviews are meant to give customers genuine product feedback from fellow shoppers. While we encourage reviewers to share their enthusiasm and experience, there can be a fine line between that and the use of customer reviews as product promotion. Our goal is to capture all the energy and enthusiasm (both favorable and critical) that customers have about a product while avoiding use of reviews to outright advertise, promote and especially mislead. We have a zero tolerance policy for any review designed to mislead or manipulate customers.

Can you be more specific about what reviews are out-of-guidelines?

To help illustrate, here are a few examples of customer reviews that we don’t allow:

A product manufacturer posts a review of their own product, posing as an unbiased shopper

A shopper, unhappy with her purchase, posts multiple negative reviews for the same product

A customer posts a review in exchange for $5

A customer posts a review of a game, in exchange for bonus in-game credits

A family member of the product creator posts a five-star customer review to help boost sales

A shopper posts a review of the product, after being promised a refund in exchange.

A seller posts negative reviews on his competitor’s product

An artist posts a positive review on a peer’s album in exchange for receiving a positive review from them

What makes for a great customer review?

Amazon customers most appreciate reviews that inform purchase decisions. They want to learn more about the product or genre, hear the reasons behind your star rating, and ultimately decide if this is the right product for them or not. The most loved reviews can be detailed or brief; they can compare multiple products or talk about a specific use; they can be educational or just plain funny. Customers enjoy and value good customer reviews and we love the passion and creativity demonstrated by all those who leave reviews on our site.

Are paid customer reviews allowed?

No. We do not allow any compensation for a customer review other than a free copy of the product (provided up front). If we find evidence that a customer was paid for a review, we will remove it.

Are authors and artists allowed to review other authors/artists’ works?

Authors and artists can add a unique perspective and we very much welcome their customer reviews. However, we don’t allow anyone to write customer reviews as a form of promotion. If you have a direct or indirect financial interest in a product, or perceived to have a close personal relationship with its author or artist, we will likely remove your review.

Can authors review their own books if they disclose their identity in the review?

We love author participation. The best place for authors (or publishers) to communicate with their readers is in the ‘Book description,’ ‘Editorial Reviews’ and ‘From the Author’ sections. Learn more about using Author Central here. We also encourage authors to participate in customer discussions or to post comments on other customers’ reviews. We don’t allow authors to submit customer reviews on their own books even when they disclose their identity.

How can I report a customer review I suspect to be outside of guidelines?

Below each review you’ll find a question that asks “Was this review helpful to you?” – if you answer “no,” you can let us know why the review is inappropriate. We will examine the review and take action if necessary.

My review was removed. How can I appeal?

If you think we got it wrong and removed a customer review that we shouldn’t have, please e-mail community-help@amazon.com and we will take another look.

Ask yourself this at the same time. Have the price of indie books, including the fact that we are flexible enough to offer our books for free, forever changed what consumers are willing to pay for books? Stated otherwise, will consumers still pay $12.99 for an ebook, which is the thievery rate the big six charge? It would be nice to know that, at a minimum, we changed that.

A couple quick updates, thoughts, and possible points of clarification. First, Amazon hasn’t taken the Change.org petition seriously yet. Maybe I don’t blame them. What impact could 210 signing indie authors have? That’s why we’re pushing for 1,000. And, if that doesn’t get their attention, then we’ll get 2,000. We will push until they will dialogue with us, which is all we have requested. Sign it here today, just take a second and you’re in good company: http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-stop-arbitrarily-removing-customer-reviews-from-indie-author-books

Next. I am starting to get information that Amazon is adding another dimension to pulling reviews. It is not set forth in any of their guidelines, but it could be called associated review pulling. What does association mean? Anyone in your family. Friends. People you work with. Reviews from all of these types of people have been removed and/or blocked according to various people. They are being told it is because they have a “financial interest” in your book, but that’s obviously a load of crap. That’s just the catchall phrase they’re using to justify their actions. So, in the future, it may not be possible to have anyone you know write you a review. Just awesome, huh? Let’s make it harder for indie authors.

This all stinks of so many other situation where if there was just transparency, there would be no speculation, rumor, and angst. Amazon could easily step up and give some clarity/description on this whole issue. In fact, that’s all most people are asking for.

I’ll be the first to admit this…I knew about this issue and when it didn’t impact me, I didn’t do anything about it. For that, I apologize. Here is the background, and my attempt to rectify my earlier apathy.

Amazon has been removing customer reviews from indie authors for the past 6-9 months. Amazon, to my knowledge, has not provided a clear explanation to any impacted author as to why the review(s) were removed. It is not citing any guideline that has allegedly been broken. Rather, it is relying on its power and monopolistic position to do what it wishes. Just so we are all on the same page, here are the guidelines that Amazon has posted on its website regarding customer reviews (taken directly from Amazon’s website):

General Review Creation Guidelines

Amazon wants your opinions to be heard
We want customers to get the information they need to make smart buying choices, and we’d love to have your help doing that. As an Amazon customer, you can submit written or video reviews for items listed on Amazon.com. We encourage you to share your opinions, both favorable and unfavorable.

Who can create customer reviews?
Anyone who has purchased items from Amazon.com. All we ask is that you follow a few simple rules (see “What’s not allowed” below).

Tips on writing a great review

• Include the “why”: The best reviews include not only whether you liked or disliked a product, but also why. Feel free to talk about related products and how this item compares to them.
• Be specific: Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it. For video reviews, we recommend that you write a brief introduction.
• Not too short, not too long: Written reviews must be at least 20 words and are limited to 5,000 words. The ideal length is 75 to 500 words. Video reviews have a 10-minute limit, but we recommend 2 to 5 minutes to keep your audience engaged.
• Be sincere: We welcome your honest opinion about the product–positive or negative. We do not remove reviews because they are critical. We believe all helpful information can inform our customers’ buying decisions.
• Full disclosure: If you received a free product in exchange for your review, please clearly and conspicuously disclose that that you received the product free of charge. Reviews from the Amazon Vine™ program are already labeled, so additional disclosure is not necessary.

What’s not allowed
Amazon is pleased to provide this forum for you to share your opinions on products. While we appreciate your time and comments, we limit customer participation to one review per product and reserve the right to remove reviews that include any of the following:

Promotional content:
• Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively
• Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)
• Reviews written for any form of compensation other than a free copy of the product. This includes reviews that are a part of a paid publicity package
• Solicitations for helpful votes

Inappropriate content:
• Other people’s material (this includes excessive quoting)
• Phone numbers, postal mailing addresses, and URLs external to Amazon.com
• Videos with watermarks
• Comments on other reviews visible on the page (because page visibility is subject to change without notice)
• Foreign language content (unless there is a clear connection to the product)

Off-topic information:
• Feedback on the seller, your shipment experience or the packaging (you can do that atwww.amazon.com/feedback andwww.amazon.com/packaging)
• Details about availability or alternative ordering and shipping information
• Feedback about typos or inaccuracies in our catalog or product description (instead, use the feedback form at the bottom of the product page).

Customer reviews should be relevant to the product in question. If you have questions about the product or opinions that do not fit the review format, please feel free to use the Customer Discussions feature on the product page. Learn more about Customer Discussions.

______________

Problem #1: If reviews are being removed because they are not “Verified Purchases,” that has never been a published guideline or requirement for reviews. Let me explain how this would be an unfair basis upon which to remove a review. First, as noted, this has never been a published requirement. Second, many of us have spent countless hours under a 10 x 10 tent at fairs, books sales, etc. to sell hard copies of our books. We have then employed measures to try to get those purchasers to leave reviews. Obviously, those purchasers cannot be “Verified,” but their reviews should count nonetheless under the currently disclosed review requirements.

Problem #2: Amazon claims to be one of the best customer service companies in the world. And, as a customer of Amazon who has spent thousands of dollars on the website, I can say that their customer service is largely excellent. Why doesn’t that dedication to service extend to independently published authors?

Problem #3: If there are guidelines being violated (assuming, for the sake of argument, that some actually exist) then why are indie authors the onlyones being impacted?

Problem #4: This is the BIGGEST problem in my opinion. Impacted authors are not being told why their reviews are being removed. I can safely say that most authors would be fine with reviews being removed if there was actually a violation of some posted guideline. I know I would be. However, to be left in the dark as to its reasons is unjust. And, Amazon’s actions have transcended from simply leaving authors in the dark to completely ignoring and/or sidestepping the issue altogether.

SOLUTION: It’s pretty easy, Amazon. Tell us what the rules are, and let us play by the rules. We will be happy to do so. Also, have the respect for indie authors to send them an email for every review that is removed which explains the rationale for doing so.

EVEN IF YOU AREN’T IMPACTED (YET), SUPPORT INDIE AUTHORS TODAY BY SIGNING THIS PETITION AT CHANGE.ORG TO MAKE AMAZON CHANGE ITS WAYS:

Monday, October 29, 2012 at 2:12 p.m.: Please note that due to a perceived lack of transparency and fair/equitable dealings with respect to the removal of customer reviews from books published by independent (“indie”) authors, several authors have banded together and signed a Change.org petition. The goal of the petition is not to impact Amazon’s business or profit in any way. The goal of the petition is not to be confrontational with Amazon. Rather, the goal of the petition is to forge a path of mutual respect and collaboration between indie authors and Amazon.

As stated in the petition, the problem perceived by indie authors is that their customer reviews are being removed from Amazon’s website without any notice from Amazon, without any explanation from Amazon to the impacted authors, and without any chance for the impacted authors to respond to the issue. As stated in the petition, the goal of the signatories is for Amazon to explain for every author that loses a review (good or bad) why that review was removed, and set forth clear guidelines as to what will and will not be removed in the future.

The hope of the supporters of this petition is that discourse would initiate, transparency would ensue, and both parties (i.e. Amazon and indie authors) could continue to build a robust world of books on Amazon’s sales platform. Pre-formed responses will be deemed non-responsive, and the push to build support for the petition will naturally continue until the matter is resolved.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing from Amazon.

First Email Sent Directly to Jeff Bezos, CEO ofAmazon

Monday, October 29, 2012 at 2:43 p.m.

Mr. Bezos,

My name is Derek Blass, and I am an independently published author. I have been able to use Amazon’s platform to sell a healthy number of my first two books, and for that I am very appreciative to Amazon. However, there has been growing discontent in the indie author crowd because of customer reviews being removed without notice to, explanation of, or discourse with indie authors. Authors have written several articles on this matter, the recitation of which is outside the scope of my intent in sending this email.

The intent of this email is to alert you to a petition entitled “Amazon: Stop Arbitrarily Removing Customer Reviews from Indie Author Books,” filed on Change.org. The goal of the petition is not to be overly confrontational with Amazon, or to impact (directly or indirectly) Amazon’s bottom line. Rather, the intent is to initiate discourse with Amazon as to the demands presented in the petition. These demands boil down to two things: (1) full disclosure of what guidelines reviews must meet for them to withstand removal from the website, and (2) a system whereby Amazon will communicate to authors when reviews will be removed, why, and allow authors to respond within a set time.

We would appreciate the chance to communicate with you further on this matter, and we would appreciate the opportunity to continue to grow our own careers and customer base with Amazon.

Many thanks,

—

Derek Blass

Author of Enemy in Blue

Amazon’s First Response

Monday, October 29, 2012 at 6:08 p.m.

Hello Derek,
I appreciate that you took the time to provide us with feedback regarding our Customer Review moderation process and the information concerning your petition. We welcome the diverse opinions of our customers because we believe the differing opinions lead to constructive and interesting discussions about our products and services.
I have passed your message along to the team involved with future development of our Communities features. I know they will want to hear your thoughts.
If you want to find out more about this or other Amazon.com features, please visit our Amazon.com Site Features Help pages:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=16465201
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your thoughts. We look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you for your inquiry. Did I solve your problem?
If yes, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A11S0WL7351GZF&k=hy
If no, please click here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A11S0WL7351GZF&k=hn
Best Regards,
Paula
Amazon.com
Amazon's Second ResponseTuesday, October 30, 2012 at 1:31 p.m.
Dear Mr. Blass,
I'm Deborah Hankins of Amazon.com's Executive Customer Relations team. Jeff Bezos received your email and asked me to respond on his behalf.
I'm sorry you feel Amazon.com is unfairly removing reviews from independent authors. I can assure you our Communities team considers all reviews in light of our guidelines and will not remove any which are not in violation of those guidelines. Although I'm sure you've seen them, I'm including a link below for your reference.
http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/
I hope the above guidelines will provide some insight into why a particular review may have been removed as well as assistance in how an individual might submit an acceptable review.
Regards,
Deborah Hankins
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
Email Response to Ms. Hankins of Amazon
Ms. Hankins,

I appreciate the response, but the issue isn’t that we necessarily believe Amazon is unfairly removing reviews from independent authors. That may be the case in some instances, but in some instances we actually agree that reviews should be removed. Rather, our demand relates to transparency that we feel indie authors deserve as towhy reviews are being removed. We also believe that a system should be put into place whereby Amazon gives notice to indie authors when a review may be removed, the express reason why, and puts into place an opportunity for the indie author to respond regarding the review in question. Finally, we want Amazon to set forth a clear set of guidelines for what will be acceptable with respect to reviews. So, your response really does not address those concerns. Here are some of the comments from the impacted authors who have signed the petition (166 in all at this point).

Reviews were removed from my book. They were honest reviews by readers who really did read my book. I as a consumer use these reviews when I make book purchases and I buy ALOT of books from Amazon.

LuAnn Dill, Evans, CO

I contacted Amazon regarding the removal of some recent book reviews, and was sent information that contradicted the published policy. Abide by the rule set YOU created, Amazon.

Deborah Deming, St. Louis, MO

I don’t want Amazon policing to this extent. I am a loyal Amazon customer, but they are creating a lot of anger with what amounts to censorship. And their current efforts are often catching the wrong people!

I’ve been organizing promotional events for a while now, and when sorting through authors’ books to invite or consider inviting, a recurring theme pops up. I can’t tell what the heck category the books fallinto. To underscore this point, and to affirm that I’m not just some dolt that can’t figure out a book’s category, imagine you walk into a bookstore (you remember what those were like, right?) and the shelves are filled with books. But, to your dismay, none of the shelves tell you what kind of books you’re looking at.

Now, imagine that, but on a website with millionsof products, and hundreds of thousandsof books! Starting to understand the problem now?

My suggestions. First, don’t hide the ball with readers. Maybe you’re afraid that if you categorize your book, some readers won’t like your category and won’t buy your book. Guess what? That’s a good thing. You want some thriller junkie reading your romance and leaving it a bad review? Or, you want some 70-year old devotee to steamy romance novels picking up your zombie apocalypse novel by accident? Nope.

So, put the genre in the title like I’ve done, or place it prominently in your Amazon description. Remember, the easier you make it for potential readers, the more sales you’re likely to get!